The story is about the Pyncheon Family and the curse they were under.
Explanation:
The opening sentences of this novel are worth noting for their many details. Given Hawthorne's habit of using only significant details, certain images should be noted here. The novel involves the story of a house that was built by pride and possessed by death on the very day of the housewarming. Thus, the opening description stresses the darkness of the house.
As the house and its inhabitants have decayed, the elm tree has grown almost as though it were nourished by the decay of the Pyncheon family. The once proud prosperity of the Pyncheons has given way to poverty for most of the family.
The elm has grown with each season, but the inhabitants of the house have become stunted. The combination of the light-dark imagery and the growth and non-growth imagery is still seen long after the Colonel's death, when his successor tries to rehabilitate the family.
